Last two weeks, April 2011

[gcreekrch]

Or more appropriately.... "Scenes From The S4!thole"

Winter is still present and it's nearly the first of May. -15 to -25 C mornings last week. Warmed up a bunch on Friday and the water is starting to run now. We are licence to turn out May 15 but doubt there will be anything but water to drink by then. Feedpile will hold out to May 28.

High, dry spots are at a premium, the salt shed was convenient for this little guy.

Undisturbed snow is still 14 to 24 inches.

Bit of a shark, she came 100 yards from her calf to warn Debbie and the bike off the morning she calved. She has had a little Aussie educating since then and respectfully keeps her distance. :wink:

Snow and slop.

Spruce trees are pretty handy for calves.

10 year old Saler x pair.

A little uterine abuse and pilferage.

I tried to explain this before but pictures are worth a thousand words. Took a chance and tied off to show the whole set up. The chains are put on in a headgate and then I turn the heifer loose in the barn alley. They can lay down anywhere they want to.

Head is coming. Shut the camera off and did my part of the equation.

Lambs are coming too. Not quite the average Jody has but we are two short of 200% and are 60% done in a week.

A battle nearly won. This calf never sucked for 5 days, was on IV for two of them, helped too suck for the next 3 days, and is finally doing his own thing today. The old dog that sleeps in the basement decided that after cleaning up the calf poop he would clean the tail up too. :roll: As long as the drugs hold out he should live.

A good cow and a good kind of cow. She knows exactly where her calf is at all times.

One of a few spots that are drying up after feeding on it.

MMMMMMMMMineral!

 

[Soapweed]

Looks like you and Debbie have everything well under control. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[VB RANCH]

and i was grumblin about the weather here, guess like the sayin goes it can always get worse. cattle look good, nice pics

 

[jodywy]

down to a 193% total so far lost a 2 out of one set and 1 out of another set of triplets.
will be looking for snow to feed on by Saturday. Today looks nice if my shearer shows up and Sue takes the day off we should put a good dent in getting some unlamb ewes undressed

 

[WyomingRancher]

High, dry spots are at a premium, the salt shed was convenient for this little guy.

Well, the least you could do is build him a deck off the salt shed with those two pallets .

Cattle look good, especially considering the conditions. I hope things dry up for you soon. Hopefully after all of that, your calf lives. I had a calf laying in a pool of blood, missing its tail... incriminating Magpie prints were in the snow :shock: .

 

[Shortgrass]

That is, I suppose, the price of tall green grass. Dry shortgrass is the price we pay for dry feed ground. Our calves scatter and lay in groups of 3 to 10, promoting good health. We all have our problems to deal with, so the question is what set of problems do you want?

So then in your calf pulling method, I suppose the cow applies the pressure? Do you have much problem with the cow turning to face you or lying down with slack on the chains?

 

[George]

We have had 12" of rain in the last 11 days and we are forcast to get 4" to 6" over the next 30 hours.

The Indianapolis weather breau said this the wetest April in history and it ain't over yet!

I'm surprised the grass isn't growing better - - - I guess just to cool yet - - we are still averaging 10F to 15F below normal highs - - not terribly cold but still in sweatshirts with the hood up to cut the non stop wind!

 

[Big Swede]

So I'm guessing you haven't planted your corn yet then George? I might start next week but the ground is still plenty cold.

 

[George]

Last year we finished corn on April 20th and beans on April 28th then it rained the whole month of May and our crops did great.

Most of the neighbors waited last year as they felt it was to cold to plant. Then they could not get in the fields till June and suffered a large cut in yield.

This year the planters are still under roof and it looks likely they will stay under at least 10 more days.

My son is looking for another 30' drill so that when we can get in the field we can cover a lot of ground quickly. I feel we have enough as some of the fields will require longer to dry. Weh have been doing about $30,000.00 in tile work each year so we can get in quicker than most. We have done quite a bit of tile work on rented ground but we require at least 6 years lease with locked in rates for us to pay for tile on rented ground. We require 3 years when we lime fields but we have no problems with either as we work hard to keep landlords happy!